In 2011, I was interviewed by the Jerusalem Post about the topic of brit milah, Jewish ritual circumcision. That piece referenced an earlier piece I wrote for CLAL about my personal experience of performing the mitzvah of brit milah when my sons were born in 1998 (that piece is no longer on CLAL’s site but is available in the Berman Archive of Stanford University) Since my writing on this topic 25 years ago there has been extensive medical research on…
The old Reese’s peanut butter cup jingle is the perfect description for the Bill T. Jones – Fela extravaganza on Broadway: “Two great tastes that taste great together” FELA! is absolutely delicious — amazing choreography by Jones combined with spectacular direction overall. And Antibalas honors Fela’s music with their own deep grooving sounds — electrifying. Both the actors playing Fela and his Mother deserve Tony Awards — stunning performances. Mindblowing. The only negative in this play is the heavy-handed…
Khazaria Flashback That morningWe first woke up as Jews.Drank Turkish coffee.Started complaining. The King, Jewish?This will not turn out well. Like schoolchildren they spoke to us.Fringes.Little boxes. the joy of learning a new languagea room in the brain we didn’t know was there. fires engulfed our old gods.sacrificial flames for the big new one.but we winked across the aislebackup plan under the floorboards. We have been chosenThe grey beards tell usAnd our homeland lies in ruinsAnd our temple desecratedBut we…
Home? Hone? I recently read the headline on Debka… Al Qaeda homes in on Germany as its next European target I scratched my head. Home in? Isn’t it “hone in” ? Time for some sleuthing…and …it turns out that there is a fascinating little history of the term.
I was asked by the good folks in Charlotte, North Carolina’s Chavurat Tikvah to share a few words on the Rosh Hashannah Day 1 Haftarah. While I didn’t have time to write out a drash, I did put some thoughts together and had a half way decent insight on the topic. So here’s how I started — Chana’s prayer is a beautiful counter-culture moment in the RH liturgy. Here we are with all this gratitude and all hail God is…
Cash for Clunkers A Poem for Rosh Hashannah Hitch your rusty old heart to the tow truck (We’ve got an old 8 track of Yossele Rosenblatt Sings Holiday Favorites up in the cab.) Chains of prayer pulling you alongthe glass walled showroom by the old highway eternal light a red neon “open” Plastic banner whipping in the windTrade-ins WelcomeGates of repentance marked by an “ENTER” arrow, slightly bent. And here you are, Your clogged heap,Your worn tires,Your gunked up insides….
I had the pleasure of contributing comments to an article about mysticism by Jennifer 8. Lee of the New York Times. SEPTEMBER 4, 2009, 3:57 PM09/09/09: An Auspicious Start to School? By JENNIFER 8. LEESept. 9, 2009 — or 09/09/09 — will be a significant day for baby boomers (the digitally remastered Beatles collection is being released) and for gadgetphiles (Apple may introduce new products). But it will also be significant for New York City children. It is the first…
(PHOTO: Birthright Israel NEXT alumni from Brooklyn dance at the National Yiddish Book Center) Way back in 1997 I was a Steinhardt Fellow at CLAL – the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. Fresh out of rabbinical school, I was thrown into a rowdy crew of Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative rabbis – all of whom were dedicated to finding some way that we could transcend those very labels and yet still be true to our convictions. (I was trained…
Well the good people over at Amazon.com have a list of the best 100 world music albums of all time and I spot three Jewy ones in the bunch. The kicker: none of them break into the top fifty! Ofra Haza comes in at 61 Idan Raichel at 75 and Andy Statman at 93 (how is he world music btw? World Music being defined here as non-Western) Where is Habreira Hatvit???? Shlomo Bar was world music before world music even…
Believer, Beware got this wonderful write up in Huffington Post while I was off in Israel drinking Yotvata’s delicious chocolate milk. “I hate anthologies — all that stopping and starting, just as you get into a writer. I loved this one though because it reflects the theme of my own disjointed weird life. I grew up as a missionary kid, pastor’s sidekick, God merchant, Religious Right leader, you name it. I long since escaped if not to sanity then to…